the debate was hosted by pbs' jim lehrer. >> i'm sorry, jim, i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs and other things. i like pbs, big bird and actually like you too, but i'm not going to keep spending money on things and borrow money from china to pay for it. >> reporter: this debate turned out to be the most tweeted event in u.s. history. 10.3 million tweets in total. the big bird comment you just heard generated 17,000 tweets per minute. wow. mike? >> people are apparently passionate about big bird. >> reporter: who knew people loved "sesame street" so much, right? >> no doubt. i never doubted it. >> we all grew up on "sesame street." kristin fisher live in our satellite center. >>> every debate includes a little stretching of the truth so to speak. did mitt romney or president obama do that when they were talking about taxes? derek mcginty watched the debate with our partners at "u.s.a. today." take a listen. >> reporter: there was a lot to talk about regardless, a lot of facts out there, especially this $5 trillion in tax cuts. president obama says that's what romney wants to do. ro